A variety of medications, including drugs and the like, are provided in the form of solid or liquid medication units, including pills which may be defined as including tablets, capsules, caplets, lozenges, etc. Although a variety of packaging arrangements have been provided or proposed for such medication units it would be desirable to provide an improved packaging system which would aid in the proper administration of the medication.
For example, a patient should be able to conveniently carry and use the package. Further, the package should permit the medication to be readily identified by both the distributor or the medication and the patient, and the package should minimize the likelihood or a child accidentally ingesting the medication.
Also, it would be desirable to provide an improved package which has a structure for facilitating the effective display of patient instructions and warnings relating to the medication.
Although it is possible for an institution, such as a hospital, to procure medication in bulk form and then prepare individual doses from a bulk supply, there are a number of reasons why such a method or medication administration is not desirable. In particular, in view of rising health care costs, there is a need to reduce costs by eliminating or reducing labor-intensive tasks relating to medication administration. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a method of medication administration which does not require personnel at a hospital or physician's office to prepare one or more individual doses from a bulk supply of medication.
It would also be beneficial to provide an improved system in which a limited, predetermined number of doses can be provided in advance to a patient for use by the patient during a subsequent time period. For example, in some countries, regulations regarding the administration of drugs require that a patient who is treated as a hospital out-patient, or who is released from a hospital emergency room, be given no more than a 24 hour supply of a prescription drug or general medication.
The patient must have a prescription filled by a registered pharmacist to obtain an additional supply of the drug. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved package for such a 24 hour supply of a prescription drug or general medication.
Such a system for accommodating a predetermined supply of medication should also desirably permit the dispensed medication to be traced and controlled from the administering source, such as the drug manufacturer, through the administering agent e.g., hospital or physician) to ultimate consumption by the patient.
It would also be desirable to provide an improved package which would accommodate identification or labeling or the medication as well as identification and labeling of the patient's name and other patient-related data. This may help to prevent confusion or mix up of the medication with the medication of other patients.
Such an improved medication package should also advantageously accommodate the maintenance of records which may have to be kept by the administering agent (e.g., hospital or physician) with respect to dispensing of the medication.
Advantageously, such an improved medication package should be easily processed in conventional medication inventory systems and in reordering or restocking operations. Further, it would be desirable if such an improved package could be easily used with institutional data processing systems for patient billing, patient monitoring, and the like.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved package could be provided in a form that could accommodate date efficient packing, shipping, handling, storage, end dispensing with a minimum of wasted space.
Preferably, such an improved package should also protect the mediation and yet be relatively light weight and have a configuration that is unlikely to snag objects when being removed from a patient's purse or pocket.
Preferably, such an improved package should also seal each individual dose of the medication.
Advantageously, the package design should permit, where desired, the construction of the package in a form that is sufficiently difficult to open so as to greatly inhibit or prevent a child from gaining access to one or more of the medication doses.
The present invention provides an improved unit dose package which can accommodate designs having the above-discussed benefits and features.